We have a student that has been out of school since the beginning of the school year due to having medical treatments.

The student is profoundly intellectually disabled, non verbal, needs help in all aspects, eating, drinking, bathroom, and the student has recently been diagnosed as canatonic and none of the treatments for their canatonic state has worked. The poor child is just a shell as this point.

The student has been in public education for 13 years and their only IEP goal is to be able to count to 10, which they have still not mastered.

The student is extremely violent and has attacked not only staff but other students as well and the other students are very afraid of them.

When this student returns, I'm at a complete loss on what to do with them, how to help them and most of all as an educator, how to educate them.

I'm kinda feeling like we will be nothing more than respite care at this point and since I have no medical training I don't know how much I can do for this student except try to keep them safe as well as the safety of other staff and students.

I know all about FAPE and that the student has a legal right to an education, but what if the student is unable to be educated, it's like taking the "E" out of FAPE.

First year SPED teacher in the Gen ed setting. I was given a mentor that I only see once a month. And I really am just figuring stuff on my own. Writing an IEP, IEP Meetings, lesson planning for small groups, pull out, push in, teaching ufli to a student who can’t read.

I was promised I’d get guidance and they’ll show me the way, as long as I had a good heart and cared for the students’ well being, they’d take care of the rest. And really, I am trying to figure it out on my own and I feel like I’m drowning. I try not to bring the thoughts home with me but it gives me anxiety cause I don’t want to mess up but I literally don’t know what I am doing. Are all school districts like this?

Thanks for any advice. Also just venting. I am grateful for the job. I live far away from family and because of all the breaks I am able to visit them. Pay is descent. Schedule is great. I just bought a new car. I really am grateful. And the kids are amazing. As far as being with the kids, I love it. Parents, co teaching, and paperwork is really the part that I am struggling with.

How are your services set up? What are the pros and cons of how you deliver services? How does co teaching look? How does MTSS look in your school? I feel crazy because mine does non of these well and want to help fix it.

Hi! I currently teach K-1 self contained mild-moderate. Problem: we are neither mild nor moderate. The majority of the students in my classroom (1:10:2) are diagnosed ASD, I have multiple kids with severe communication deficits/who are nonverbal, 1 with an AAC, and some pretty big behaviors. So at this point, we are pretty severe!

When I started this year the room was equipped for mild-moderate support. My admin, who are fantastic, have suggested that we take steps towards turning my classroom into an ASD support classroom/center based severe classroom rather than following the typical schedule that I was assigned.

Does anyone have any suggestions for sensory bins, sensory spaces, favorite activities and equipment? Routines or resources that you find work best? Or any suggestions on how to run centers with my ratio of staff to kids? I think I would benefit from any and all advice, my classroom is the most severe in the building so I don’t have much to go off of with my coworkers. My principal has already said that I should be approved for anything I need to buy, so anything that you have found that works well I would love to hear about!

Thanks so much!

Sat in an initial referral for a student with high functioning autism who was exited from EC Services the previous year and placed on a 504 plan with accommodations due to no adverse educational impact. Student is amazing does very well in school; has friends, is social, test scores are good, school work is amazing and no social emotional complaints. Parent and advocate argue that student is struggling emotionally at home despite doing well at school and complains of headaches and stomach aches due to cognitive overload because they work so hard all day long. They’ve said she is masking at school and want her to have direct services for speech and reading. All sources of data indicate no issues. 4 evaluations (school psych, educational, speech, and independent evals) are all in line score wise and align with what teachers over past 5 years are saying. Particularly interesting are the IEE and private speech eval. Psych was very similar to school results but private Speech gives the TILLS which indicates very low scores (significantly low in reading fluency, orthographic reading and digit span). These scores are the only outliers with everything and I just don’t know much about the TILLS other than it is not normed on students with disabilities. While I realize it’s only one data point, these meetings have lasted hours and are VERY contentious! The parent is being unbelievably threatening in her email to me and it feels like bullying. The advocate has a reputation for this very thing at other schools. Any help with similar situations, possible solutions or advice would be appreciated.

My son is autistic, ADHD and struggles most with rigidity, limited special interests and social skills in the very low range. He has little interest in socializing with other kids, although he is closely connected to his family, younger sisters and trusted adults. He has low processing speed, low working memory, low ability in activities of daily living. But he is academically very bright and able to do a lot of grade level work.

He’s in sixth grade, 12 years old. His school district has a wide variety of programming and supports but none fit him. Most kids fit more squarely in remedial academics and life skills, or able to function in general ed with typical IEP accommodations. My son is more… profoundly autistic but not at all cognitively disabled or even low IQ. He needs to be in general ed but with significant modifications and accommodations that just don’t seem possible.

People keep saying he’s a cohort of 1, very unique, blah blah blah. Anyone familiar with this profile? What type of educational setting is right to continue to provide him
Academic rigor but also all the executive functioning and other supports he needs to access it and show what he knows.

How do you determine the schedule for pulling groups? How many groups/kids do you see each day versus how many kids are on your caseload?

What does your high school do with kids who are borderline in IQ (70ish)? I see them in a self contained room for major subjects and given the virtual school curriculum to work through with a special ed teacher floating from student to student. Is this normal? My impression is that it puts too much responsibility for learning on the students who we know have difficulty learning. Don’t they need a teacher to actively teach them the content face to face? Or am I missing something?

My special needs pre-K classroom gets 30 mins of smartboard time a week. Half my students have cerebral palsy. The others have various medical needs.

I have been finding a particular drawing app that makes fireworks after you draw to be particularly motivating for my students who have a difficult time reaching, or for my one student who stims on all toys (the board included) by tapping them. I also do a piano app. But any other recommendations for an app they can use?

I’m currently an undergraduate college student majoring in special ed, but I’m kind of growing more and more concerned about my future with an education career. I loved helping out with the students when I was in high school and did everything I could to be involved with them, and I can definitely see myself loving being a teacher, but I’m worried about my personal stability going into it. I know it’s not a profession to go into if you want to be abundantly rich, but I also would like to have enough to be somewhat comfortable and have a little excess to enjoy my hobbies and not just barely scrape by. Is there anyone else that had these concerns going into it? How did you manage to get by them?

I’m struggling with which parts of the Brigance transition inventory to use. Does anyone have any suggestions on which parts they find the most useful?

Hello everyone, I have a disability, autism, and my child has it too. She is very young still, not school aged yet. I am very open about it at home, I talk about her autism and my own, because it’s part of us and we can’t change it. I also don’t want her to feel that she should change anything about herself. Basically, it’s embraced despite the challenges.

At some point, when it’s appropriate, we will have a formal sit down talk about it, in an age appropriate way. But I’m wondering about using the word disability. I don’t feel like it’s a big deal, because it’s what it is, and it’s ok that people have disabilities, we are all worthy anyway and should be accepted the way we are. I didn’t have a specific plan to say “you are disabled” to her, but it did come up with my husband that he thinks we should not say the word disability to her about her because it will make her feel othered, less confident, and affect her self esteem.

We are definitely going to have the formal talk about her autism diagnosis still, but I would love some feedback on if it’s true that we should avoid the word disabled with her until she’s much older. Appreciate any insight offered, thank you

EDIT: thank you everyone for such thoughtful responses. it’s all been very helpful, and included some extra details I hadn’t thought about before.

Newer school psychologist here. I’m curious to know how more seasoned school psychologists in the field are evaluating students effectively and making data-informed distinctions between students with ADHD and students severely dysregulated from chronic digital media usage in this day and age?

I have parents beating down my door requesting evaluations because everyone’s children have executive dysfunction and limited attention. How are we as discipline navigating these generational issues without passing out IEPs to every single child who is in constant stimulation withdrawal?

IEP as in Individualized Education Plan. I’ve thought and been saying that I was in specialed, but the classroom/class block was called Academic Support. I did have those second teachers for help in at least two classes every year. I had an IEP. Everything says that you need an IEP to have special education, but just because you have IEP, does that automatically mean special education? Or does the name for “special education” vary from schools? Thanks.

I know it is not all schools, but I am faced with the situation where the school is trying to ignore my reasonable request for a full IEP evaluation. I have asked, then they talked me down to just an OT eval to start, with the promise that if something shows up in that, we can switch to a full IEP evaluation. To be clear, I have already presented the school with documentation of diagnosed disabilities that should qualify my kid for an IEP.

Since the last meeting nearly two weeks ago, they have not responded to my emails. No PWN has been provided. I don’t even have a soft copy of my kid’s 504 which we met about a month ago. Clearly this happens to enough families that they are many dedicated sites about the subject online.

Yes, I understand the factual reasons why a school district is avoiding ($$$$$), but my question is why are PEOPLE, who in theory have feelings and empathy and choose to work in a school and in special ed, are okay ignoring parents and not helping kids who are struggling?

(Yes, I’ve googled, the school is getting a letter delivered to them tomorrow demanding an IEP eval and PWN, and a complaint filed with the state 11 days letter if they don’t respond, but I will happily take any additional advice.)

ETA: I have provided the school with a diagnosis letter. He is failing all his classes. I have provided school with multiple examples showing how his disability has affected his grades. One example showed how he could have gone from a failing grade to a passing grade based solely off points lost due to his diagnosed disability. (Being initially vague about the disability, but imagine a dyslexic kid losing points because a math answer has the 3 written backwards but is otherwise numerically correct.)

They have stated that his 504 accommodations are “maxed out.” It’s about two pages of accommodations and I got the impression that adding more would make it difficult for teachers to provide all of the accommodations. I also haven’t seen his 504 outside of the meetings because they haven’t provided me with a copy.

I understand people get busy, but when all three of the people (special ed teacher, principal, distract special ed coordinator) copied on the email don’t respond to multiple attempts over a 2 week period, it feels deliberate.

Seeking advice from other educators:

I am a first year public school, K-2nd self-contained teacher. I love the work but I am burnt out, over-worked, and under such EXTREME pressure that I know I need to change positions.

I love working with individuals with disabilities. I know this is my passion. I don’t mind supporting challenging behaviors either. I’m so overwhelmed with case management, scheduling, and not having enough paras.

For teachers— What teaching position have you found to be the least stressful? Or for lack of a better word- easiest?

Resource? Self-contained? EC, elementary, middle, high? Mild, mod, severe? Life skills? Private? Public?

I’m open to anything. I want to work with individuals with disabilities forever. But I want a job that doesn’t leave me crying every night over the stress. A job where I can leave at a reasonable hour and not have to take work home. Is it possible?

…and I’ve never been unhappier. I love my students. Teachers outside of my room are fantastic. Admin team is wonderful. But I swear these two “whisper teach”. If that wasn’t a thing before, it is now. I’m an energetic teacher. Also male. I know my voice carries. But I’m not going to hold my students’ attention by being mellow. Also, the other two teachers are incredibly clicky. Last thing I will mention, there’s not even enough space to physically move around my kidney table while all 6 of my students are seated without one of them standing up. Any words of encouragement?

Currently first year sped para and I LOVE this job working at a school. It is so fun but also rewarding. It doesn’t feel like a job at times with how much I have with my kids + their classrooms. My teacher and coworkers are the best. And I LOVE summers off.

I have ADHD and ainxiety disorders and have tried many different types of jobs: hairdressing, desk jobs, housekeeping, CNA, home care, serving and I always quit eventually. But I feel like now I’ve found my field that calls to me. Which is kind of ironic because it’s very chaotic but I thrive in the chaos. And I can relate to a lot of the kids as I had learning problems. I love lifting them up. Also my mom was also a para at my elementary and I have a relative with severe Cerebral Palsy.

So here’s the thing, I’m nervous about running a classroom + paras and participating in IEP meetings. It feels like a lot of weight to carry and I’m scared of taking that on. I overhear how overwhelmed my teacher gets with the workload. But damn her pay is pretty decent.

I want to hear your opinions on a career path beyond being a para. Do you recommend teaching? Or is working as a Behavior analyst at an autism center easier? Or working as an educational service consultant of some capacity for a school district?

I want to hear it all, the education required, the pay, the pros/cons.

I’m feeling really confused and stressed right now. I’ve been at this school for 6 days and I’m still in training. like the title says, I applied for a teaching assistant position and was hired for the position and told I was going to be the teaching assistant for classroom 1. The classroom seems very toxic and it seems to be a lot of underlying drama. the teacher has was immensely thankful when I told her I was her new TA. (teaching assistant) she literally cried tears. she said that the aides were heavily focused on their 1:1s and never really helped out other than that. the aides seem to roll their eyes a lot at the teacher and it seemed like they did not respect her and wanted to overstep and they did not listen to much of what she said. for example, she told them that a student did not earn a star because he did not complete his work, and they rolled their eyes and gave him the star anyways. anyways, moving forward to my main concern, today one of the aides told me, “hey, so you’re no longer TA, and you will be this students 1:1. I will be TA now, yeah things change around here. the teacher told me that upon finding out I was the new TA, the aide went to the directors office and complained and was able to get the director to switch our positions. the teacher told me that this aide has never showed interest in a TA position before and has never asked about becoming her TA. it seems they both dislike each other to be honest. I’m confused on how to feel because TA and 1:1 aide pay exactly the same, there is no pay difference. the teacher told me she thinks the aide just wants the title. it’s so odd to me that she did this because there is no pay difference. also, the director never told me anything. I’m so unsure how to feel right now. any insight would be great. thank you all in advance!

my daughter started full day kindergarten this year, after a four day half day preschool where she loved school and really thrived. This year we are having some difficulty. She has an IEP for developmental delay (social emotional and communication delay), and is medically diagnosed ASD. We had the most fantastic experience with pre K and their program and they walked us through a lot of the IEP things, throughout pre K my daughter had visuals, communication boards, extra reminders, and extra support with peers and non preferred activities. We had our yearly IEP meeting at the end of the year and the accomodations was left blank so that elementary school would have a meeting with us and put specific accommodations because in the pre K setting that we were in, they used so many different ones for some many different levels of support they didn't know whjch ones she would need in a kinder classroom.

She starts kindergarten and loved it for the first two days, then we get to the first full week and the kinder teacher pulls us aside and tells us that our child yelled and screamed at her and at other children and is scaring them and they don't want to play with her, she had to have the helper take her out and play with play dough in the hallnuntil she calmed down. I'm shocked because we have never seen that behavior before, not at home, school, church etc. if anything she tends to withdraw if she gets upset. So then I call a meeting with the special education case worker, the teacher and the social worker. The teacher then tells me that it's happened again and that this is happening at recess (even though she told us the first time it happened in class) and that our child won't let this one child she is fixated on play with anyone else. I asked if anyone has been helping her with prompts with other children and they said she doesn't need assistance, that this was purely behavioral and that "she doesn't like loud noises so other kids shouldn't have to hear her be that loud either." The SPED case worker suggested supervision during recess only since that was when the teacher said it was happening. We walked away agreeing we would keep an eye on it and that they would give me updates weekly.

A week later I get an update from the teacher saying that she wanted a certain color crayon and she wasn't wanting to continue with the activity so she followed the teacher around the classroom asking if she could have the certain color crayon. Teacher gave her a choice to participate with a different color or not participate and that other boys and girls didn't get their choice of crayon and they're still participating.

Then we get to parent teacher conferences. My daughter is scoring extremely well in math and need a little help with some of the reading things but is really good at letter recognition. I ask the teacher how she is doing in the classroom and the teacher is insistent there is nothing wrong, that she is doing wonderfully and that there hasn't been any outbursts. When I probe further and ask about non-preferred activities or sensory things, the teacher says that she does get tense sometimes and has to sit at her desk or at the quiet chair. My child mentions for free frequently at this time that she has to sit in the calm corner. I ask the caseworker if we can implement some support in the classroom rather than just at recess because that's what it says on her IEP for social minutes because right now they're only counting the social minutes as recess support. I also mention that our child's been coming home with severe restraint collapse and this did not happen in preschool and I think she needs some breaks. The kindergarten teacher suggests going to half day, I suggest scheduled breaks. The caseworker says that they will keep an eye on her and we can add or subtract from the IEP as needed.

Cut to the last couple of weeks and after school is becoming really difficult especially night time because she doesn't want her teacher to be upset. She wants to make sure everything's perfect. She wants to know what's happening next at school. She has to make sure her backpack's all set so she doesn't forget anything, she doesn't want to tell me anything negative that happened at school or otherwise and that's something new that hasn't been an issue with this past year. I asked for data from the caseworker and the Kinder teacher and she replies with they're only taking anecdotal data from observations at recess. And I believe they hadn't been in the classroom at this point. The caseworker then suggests that she can schedule an IEP meeting. I agree and we get that on the calendar.

We get to the IEP meeting and honestly it's a disaster. The teacher wasn't initially invited but then she showed up in the middle of it and had to leave in the middle of it because nobody covered her for a sub and they suggested that the behavior that we're seeing at home is due to something that we are doing as parents and that we need to get her visual schedules and think about putting her in therapy provided by the school or seeing the social worker at school for like a group session and that the teacher doesn't see any issues and that the teachers able to use a calm tone of voice and is able to make her a helper and validate her feelings and we should do that at home, that is put on the IEP draft. They also give me data of two observations they did where she did great with only up to reminders prompts .We get to accommodations and I ask for headphones at lunch not just fire drills because my my child frequently comes home saying that the lunchroom is too loud and they won't give her earphones, even though they said that she should have access to them. I did ask for a visual schedule at her desk and the caseworker replied with " well she's been able to look at the big schedule in the classroom like any other child and I want to keep it to the least restrictive environment so I don't think we should do that, but I can put visuals as needed". I then asked for scheduled breaks because my daughter cannot and will not communicate to an adult that she needs a sensory break. It's then suggested to put" opportunities for a break" on the IEP however, there is no solution for her being able to ask. The caseworker is adamant she doesn't want scheduled breaks because she doesn't want to take my child out of class during learning time, and she also wants that to be least restrictive environment. We eventually come to a compromise where they will print a picture of the sensory room and put it on her table and she can point to it to tell her teacher that she would like a break. Social stories are also added as needed, however they came home with us, and haven't been implemented at school.

Can anyone give their input on this situation, on the least restrictive environment comments, on not needing any assistance during class. I'm having a really hard time with this, and They want me to sign the IEP and I'm just not quite sure which way is up or down.

Thank you all for everything you do❤️

Should I use 10 pt or 15 pt?

I was hired at a new high school last year as a resource teacher/case manager. I ended up teaching some special ed sections of science and co-teacher a few sections as well. My background is more in reading, so I was able to use that background to modify written materials, help kids with morphology to remember vocabulary words, along with creating general modifications to help them access the material.

This year I was also place in two sections of co-taught 9th grade English. I’ve taught special ed sections of English and I’ve done a good amount of phonics training. I’m good on data collection and sort of helping kids on the fly, but I’m feeling at a loss for how to implement actual interventions.

Based on reading screeners, combined with my phonics knowledge. A big gap generally seems to be a low level of decoding skills, even for kids who have decent comprehension. I’d really like to have a small group to work on basic spelling patterns: vowel teams, spelling common prefix/suffixes, etc.

However, I haven’t ever created lessons that would be shorter, am unsure of how many students to group, and how to help my co-teacher plan around kids being out 15-20 minutes once a week. She is also new to teaching the class and relies on the already-made scope and sequence from gen-Ed.

I’d love tips or advice!